Heat map view sets table for food warehouse optimization

Inspired by the vivid views of stadium heat maps, a Midwest food distributor worked with Information Builders to gain a better view of its supply chain workings. The result was a novel warehouse optimization system. Midwest wholesale food distributor Lipari Foods is extending its use of analytics in search of new process efficiencies, and it came up with a novel warehouse optimization strategy in the process. The regional company's goal is to take the kind of data-intensive techniques now used in the major leagues -- to show where home runs are likely to fall -- to similarly gain a more acute view on how goods flow through its warehouse. Inspired by sports "I was inspired by seeing stadium heat maps and saw how a warehouse could be handled that way too," said Joe Beydoun, Lipari's director of supply chain management and BI.